Is it me or are there an ever growing number of drop-dead gorgeous action heroines on the big screen these days? I’ve lost track of how many hard-core heroine roles Angelina has played this year alone. I often wonder…What is it about these beautiful female superheroes that continue to fascinate us and inspire our curiosity? Does our current preoccupation with female power represent a recent phenomenon or a historic trend?

At the WAG you can encounter the irresistible femme fatale again and again, rendered by artists of the 15th and 16th centuries; images of legendary biblical queens and female saints. Overtones of purity (read virginity) and varying degrees of sacrifice, goodness, gutsy perseverance, and unadulterated wickedness are illustrated in glowing color in gilded frames. Colliding with society’s expectation of the women of this period, these breathtakingly beautiful, often seductive renderings by Northern Renaissance artists represent a force to be reckoned with, and an allure that would not escape the notice, desire, and respect of every man and woman, then as now.

Join me, along with poet Bonnie Loewen and harpsichordist Irmgard Baerg, on Wednesday, April 13 at 7pm as we give a nod to three of the WAG’s most notable Heroines of History in the intimate setting of the Gallery’s 16th century collection.